Sunday, December 22, 2024

 

Musharraf’s Maxims
By Dr Ahmad Faruqui
Dansville, CA

Rumor has it that General Musharraf has penned his memoirs and they should be coming out in a year or two. Presumably, they will describe how he saved Pakistan through enlightened moderation and be an instant best seller.
It would have been more interesting if the general had instead laid out the maxims through which he made military dictatorship an icon of admiration in the West. Musharraf’s Maxims, unlike Napoleon’s, would focus on the art of politics rather than the art of war. Five come to mind.
First, camouflage your military dictatorship with democratic lingo. And should someone else call you a military dictator, feign umbrage. That is exactly what Musharraf did during his April 28 interview with the Guardian newspaper. Of course, even Saddam Hussain maintains that he became president of Iraq by the will of the people.
Unlike prior dictators, Musharraf has not declared martial law. It is sufficient that the people know that the corps commanders have more power than provincial governors or chief ministers. Nor has he suspended the constitution, simply amended it. He has given more military officers senior civilian positions than anyone else. But, to conceal their khaki identity, they don’t mention their military rank.
Second, make yourself the embodiment of liberal Western values. Soon after he seized power in October 1999, the general appeared in causal Western clothes cuddling two Chinese dogs in his arms. This contrasted nicely with images of gun-toting fundos.
Because of his carefully crafted image, Musharraf is included in Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in 2006. The magazine credits him with being “The West’s best bet for peace.” Last year, an American talk show host said that Musharraf was single-handedly holding back a swarm of 150 million terrorists. So Musharraf has attained the status of an Urban Legend who can go on wearing those military fatigues indefinitely because without them, the West would lose the war on terror.
Third, never admit to weakness. The specific charge levied against Musharraf during the Guardian interview was that he was Bush’s poodle. The charge must have flattered him, since that placed him in the same league as Tony Blair. But Musharraf denied it. He said that he had condemned the US’ violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty when it had fired missiles into a Pakistani village. He forgot conveniently that at the time of the incident, he had mostly talked about how other “foreigners” (read Arabs) were violating Pakistan’s sovereignty. Soon after the incident, his prime minister traveled to Washington where he did not even mention the topic of sovereignty, let alone ask for any apology. Being an honorable man, Aziz was not about to bite the hand that fed him.
The general told the Guardian that he was his own man, a gentle and soft man, but a man who had real teeth that he would not hesitate to use when needed. When questioned about the threats to national integrity posed by military action in Waziristan and Balochistan, he labeled those questioning him as pygmies. No statesman of any repute has used that slur to berate his opponents in a rather long time.
For a few minutes, the dictator essentially admitted that he was one. He had gone back to being the general who, fresh after his coup d’etat, had concluded his October 19, 1999 Guardian interview with candor:

"Are you enjoying yourself, sir?”
"To put it frankly, it is always nice to be in charge"

In the months to come, he would create a myth about being an accidental ruler. He was destined to rule, without ever having wanted to rule. He did not carry out a coup but a counter coup, in self-defense against someone who tried to kill him.
Fourth, let no one can question your judgment. Thus, his handpicked prime minister can declare to the world at large that Pakistan’s per capita income had doubled during the last four years. For per capita income to double in four years, it would have to grow at 25 percent a year. With population growing at 2 percent a year, this would suggest that national income had grown at 27 percent a year. But GDP growth has averaged between 6 and 8 percent a year during the past four years. So how could national income have grown at a rate almost four times higher than GDP? In his spare time, Aziz needs to begin penning a new economics textbook.
What should one do if someone assails your accomplishments by calling your country a failed state, as did the recent study sponsored by Foreign Policy magazine? While one may quibble with any such ranking, it does call into question the dictator’s claims to have rescued the country from failure and to have performed an economic turnaround that borders on the miraculous. So how does Musharraf respond? By ignoring the insult and having one of his lackeys debunk the study.
Fifth, surround yourself with a chain of sycophants. Let them suggest that you must remain in power much longer than your life expectancy. So if you stay in power for even half that long, it won’t look unreasonable.
Based on the general’s recent statements, he is planning to stay in power through 2012, all under the guise of creating sustainable democracy. And as that year approaches, expect the deadline to shift to the year 2017. Not bad for a man who was given a three-year term by the Supreme Court.
Musharraf is taking Pakistan down a path where the end state will be a totalitarian dystopia. One such state is dramatized in the recent film, “V for Vendetta.” Based on a novel by Alan Moore, a darkly philosophical cult figure, it is set in Britain. A “High Chancellor” rules the country with an iron hand, places the entire population under surveillance and imprisons anyone who is remotely a threat.
To bring an end to the absolute corruption of absolute power, the anti-hero V, who has survived internment at the dictator’s biological experimental camp, and who wears a Guy Fawkes mask, has the dictator killed by one of the dictator’s henchman in a gunfight. V then drives a train full of explosives into the Houses of Parliament, an action that is applauded by the populace since it is heralds the end of dystopia.
Hopefully, the people of Pakistan won’t have to resort to such extreme measures to gain their political freedoms. To avoid inflicting Orwellian terror on his fellow citizens in Pakistan, General Musharraf needs to take his well-deserved retirement. Now.


 


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Editor: Akhtar M. Faruqui
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